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Friday, May 25, 2012

FO Friday: Envelope Clutch

Slowly but surely, my sewing skills are improving. I finished this bag earlier today, and am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I used Noodle Head's Envelope Clutch pattern, which you can see and buy over here (yes, that's the same place where I got the pattern for my Runaround Bags).

I'm really glad that I decided to make the Runaround Bags first, as that pattern is way less fiddly than this one and is therefore a lot easier to execute. While I wouldn't say the Envelope Clutch pattern is especially difficult, it's definitely not what I would consider to be a beginner project. On a scale of one to ten, I'd give it about a five if you complete it without any extras, and a six or seven if you add the piping and wrist/shoulder straps. As I do not have a piping foot for my sewing machine, I chose to leave that part out. I did include a wrist strap, which you can see in the picture below:

Overall, I'd say that my skills are progressing nicely, though some of them still need work. I've become pretty comfortable with basic stitches and techniques as well as ironing correctly, though my detail work still needs some practice. I'm specifically thinking of zippers as I write that; despite having a zipper foot and watching a million YouTube videos on how to correctly install them, I'm still having some difficulties with getting them to look nice. You can see how uneven the stitching is in this picture.

A word to the wise on the fabric allotment: If you want to make the smaller size, a quarter yard is enough for both the exterior, wrist strap, interior, and interior pocket/credit card slots. Personally, though, I'd recommend going with fat quarters, especially for the interior, as they'll give you a little more leeway (this bag was made from them, actually). If you decide to make the larger size, however, a quarter yard will give you enough to make the exterior, a small wrist strap, and the interior. You won't have enough fabric to make a full shoulder strap or the interior pocket/card slot if you only get a quarter of a yard. In light of that, I'd recommend purchasing a half yard of both fabrics if you're planning on making the larger size.

That said, I'm a pretty big fan of the pattern. It comes with clear, detailed step-by-step instructions and has plenty of pictures and diagrams, all of which I find useful as a relatively inexperienced sewer. I plan to make a few more of these in the future-- I got a ton of fabric for dresses recently, and imagine that I'll have enough leftovers from that to make a few small clutches to match.